Week 14: April 2nd thru April 8th

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Use Cmd/Ctrl+F to search Week 14.
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Names in bold will be found in Players; bolded Titles in References.

4/2 of… 1792

An act establishing a mint, and regulating the Coins of the United States; aka The Coinage Act or the Mint Act. It established the United States Mint, regulated the coinage and created a decimal system for U.S. currency. The silver dollar was established the as the unit of money and declared to be lawful tender.  {001}

1901

With an arrest warrant for the murder of Oliver Thornton in Concho County and their guns drawn and ready, Sheriff Elijah S. Briant and his posse walked in the door of Jack Owens Bakery in Sonora, TX. The outlaws never cleared leather. Outlaw George Kilpatrick was wounded and William ‘Will’ “News” Carver, an original member of The Black Jack Ketchum Gang and later “The Wild Bunch”, was shot to death (six hits). Carver was later cleared of the murder. Photo: U.S. PD 1900 John Swartz, a crop from “The Fort Worth Five”.  {001}
see also:
Photo Gallery Index – Lawmen and Outlaws Photos – Fort Worth Five
Quotes Index – Gunfighter Quotes – Will Carver

1909

The Spring Creek Raid, Nowood Valley, WY; Joe Allemand’s sheep camp is assaulted by seven masked riders. Two sheep wagons are burned; Allemand, Joe Lazier (Allemands nephew) and Jules Emge are killed. Several local cowboys are later convicted of the crimes. Public outrage over the incident brings an end to the violent confrontations and attacks on sheepmen.  {001}

1932

Bill Pickett, age 61, kicked in the head and killed by a bronco. Black (African, white and Cherokee) rodeo cowboy [inventor of Bulldogging—he bit ’em on the lip!] performed in the 101 Wild West Show (c. 1907) and Pickett Brothers Bronco Busters and Rough Riders Association. Also in two early western movies: The Crimson Skull (1921) and The Bull Dogger (1922). Inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1971. Buried on the 101 Ranch in Oklahoma. TYH!  {001}

4/3 of… 1855

A patent is issued to Rollin White, #12648, for boring through percussion revolver cylinders for conversion to metallic cartridges. This led to a dramatic increase in firepower for a single gun; licensed to others by Smith & Wesson.  {001}
see:
Photo Gallery Index – Weapons Photos Index
– Mikes Revolvers Page 1 – Navy Colt Conversions

1860

The company had barely 60 days to set up the system, hiring riders, buying some 500 horses and building 138 relay stations. The first runs of the Pony Express departed from St. Joseph, MO, Johnny Frey on Sylph, and Sacramento, CA. with Harry Roff on a horse unnamed in history. (All names and facts of departures heavily questioned and debated.) Riding alone between stations at a breakneck pace, switching mounts every 10-15 miles at a re-mount station and then handing the mochila* off to a new courier after 75-100 miles. The fastest time across the frontier was seven days, 17 hours, carrying the inaugural address of President Abraham Lincoln. The longest ride by a single rider was by Robert “Pony Bob” Haslam* (20 years old) in May 1860, 380 miles in less than 40 hours, during attacks on the relay stations by Paiute Indians. All of this for $100 to $150 a month.
The operation was run by the Central Overland California & Pike’s Peak Express Company, whose initials (C.O.C. & P.P.) were translated by its employees as “Clean Out of Cash and Poor Pay.” The firm was estimated to have lost $200,000 over it’s 19 months of operation. Photo: U.S. PD  {001}
see:
*References – Dictionary – Mochila
References – Dictionary – Pony Express Riders Oath
Timelines – Timelines M-Z – Pony Express Timeline
*Wk. 09, 02/29/1912 – Robert “Pony Bob” Haslam

1882

An unarmed Jesse James {26} (aka. Thomas Howard), shot in the back of the head at his home in St. Joseph, MO, by Robert “Bob” Ford (seeking a $5,000 reward). Bob’s brother, Charley, was also present. The brothers were arrested for murder. Later, in a single day: they were indicted, plead guilty to the charges, sentenced to hang and pardoned, by then Missouri Governor Thomas T. Crittenden. The citizenry could not but suspect that their Governor had conspired with Ford to murder James. The legend grew again! Sometime later, the Ford boys were to act out the murder in a traveling stage show.  {001}
see:
Quotes Index – Gunfighter Quotes – Bob Ford
Photo Gallery Index – Pushin’ Up Daisies – Jesse James

1895

The Doolin Gang+2 tries it without Bill Doolin at Dover, OK Terr. They hold up a Rock Island RR train but they can’t open the safe in the express car, so they proceed to rob the the passengers of cash, jewelry, watches and other items of value. No injuries.  {001}
see:
The Originals Index – Outlaw Gangs Index – Doolin Gang – Wild Bunch

1913

William Fredrick Cody – Buffalo Bill was the guest of honor at the dedication of the Pony Express Monument in St. Joseph, MO. Charlie Cliff and “Cyclone” Thompson, riders of record, were also in attendance. Cody had certainly claimed he rode, but the requirements called for riders to be eighteen. In the two years of the Pony express’s existence, Cody would have 14 & 15 years old. The doubt creeps in…  Photo: U.S. Pd, pre-1923  {001}
see:
Timelines Index – Timelines M-Z – Pony Express Timeline
Timelines Index – Timelines A-L – Buffalo Bill Timeline

1948

Shreveport Municipal Auditorium, Shreveport, LA; KWKH-AM radio’s first broadcast of Louisiana Hayride. The immensely popular country/western music show would play until 08/27/1960 and eventually morph into a TV show of the same name. Almost every C/W star of the times appeared on this show. Other copycat shows around the country went along for the hayride.  {001}

2016

The passing of Chief Joseph Medicine Crow – High Bird, at 102 years in Billings, MT.  The Last Crow War Chief, anthropologist, Tribal Historian, author, soldier (Bronze Star and the Légion d’honneur). Perhaps best known for his writings and lectures concerning the Battle of the Little Bighorn. He was said to have been the last person to have heard direct oral testimony from people who were present before the Battle in 1876 (1925 at age 11). His maternal step-grandfather, White Man Runs Him, was a scout for George Armstrong Custer and an eyewitness to the Battle.
A founding member of the Traditional Circle of Indian Elders and Youth (1977). Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009). Chief Crow was an interesting and important modern Indian leader, look him up! Photo: 2001 U.S. PD? Internet  {001}
see:
References – Books – Novels and History (non-ref)
– Joseph Medicine Crow

4/4 of…1842

Nicholas C. Creede born in Ft. Wayne, IN. Army scout, prospector, miner, town founder.  {001}

1843

Born: William Henry Jackson in Keesville, NY: Painter, Illustrator, Soldier, Photographer.  {001}

1878

LCW: Andrew L. ‘Buckshot’ Roberts shot to death by Charlie Bowdre and George Coe at Blazer’s Mill in Mescalero, NM. Roberts defended himself from arrest by the Lincoln County Regulators believing that he would not survive their custody. He killed Dick Brewer, Chief of the Regulators, wounded George Coe, John Middleton and Doc Surlock; shot the gunbelt off Charlie Bowdre and knocked Billy the Kid out with his rifle. The Regulators quit the scene and sent in a doctor to care for Roberts. The Regulators had a warrant for Roberts for complicity in the killing of John Tunstall but he was probably not involved in that murder which was later shown to have been carried out by members of the Jesse Evans Gang. Frank Coe and Fred Waite were also present at the fight.  {001}

1887

After Kansas passed a suffrage law in 1887, the WCTU* moved quickly throughout the state and most notably where women were determined to be a political power in the new town of Argonia. There, women “nominated a slate of candidates for local office who agreed with them” about prohibition. Objecting to “petticoat rule”, a faction of men who heckled WCTU meetings also secretly planned to embarrass the women. Believing she would only garner the 20 votes of the WCTU membership, they substituted an election ballot, identical to the official document, with the mayoral candidate’s name replaced with that of Susanna Salter.  Certain they would humiliate the women and their agenda.
Salter, a devout Quaker, was already well known in local politics. Educated at Kansas State Agricultural College, her husband was the first City Clerk, her father had been Argonia’s first Mayor. She had drafted the town’s first ordinances.
The local Republican Party chairman rushed a delegation to see her. Explaining the trick as She did the family laundry, they asked if she would accept the office if elected. She agreed. The WCTU and their new Republican allies quickly organized to get out the vote. Some early voters were surprised to see a female contender for mayor, but the chauvinist men’s scheme was a spectacular failure. Susanna Salter was the first female elected mayor in the United States.  {003}
see:
*Wk. 47, 11/23/1873 – Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
Wk. 23, 06/09/1911 – Carrie Nation

1888

John Howe came home drunk and cut his wife Eva’s throat with a pocket knife. He was arrested for the murder, but later that night outraged community members hanged him from a derrick at the construction site of Larimer County’s third courthouse in Fort Collins, CO (the only known lynching in that city). A local newspaper said of Howe’s lynching, and another one that occurred in nearby Greeley: “Much as lynch law is to be deplored in the abstract, yet there are times, or at least seem to be, when the checking of crime can be accomplished in no other way.” John Howe’s ghost is said to haunt the Armadillo building, which sits on his former property.  The couple was buried, side by side in an unmarked grave in Potters Field. Recently, a headstone was provided by a local business.  {003}

1895

Having taken a special overnight train to Dover, OK; a posse led by U.S. Marshall Chris Madsen and Deputy Marshals William Banks and Isaac Prater pick up the trail of yesterday’s train robbers, and find the Doolin Gang camped near the Cimarron River in Major County. In a fierce gun battle (an estimated two hundred rounds were fired) Banks fires a round which explodes a cartridge on Tulsa Jack Blake’s gunbelt, killing the outlaw. “Little Bill” Raidler and two other gang members shoot their way to freedom. But the gang is demoralized and scattered. There were still a few more incidents of robberies and killings by various individuals, but this was the last hurrah for the Doolin Gang.  {001}
see:
The Originals Index – Outlaw Gangs Index – Doolin Gang – Wild Bunch
PLAYERS – Timelines Index – Timelines M-Z – Three Guardsmen Timeline

1900

The passing of California pioneer John Bidwell at age 80. Prospector, farmer, soldier, statesman, philanthropist, politician and prohibitionist. Founder of the 1848 California mining camp Bidwell’s Bar. Photo: U.S. PD pre-1900.  {001}
see also:
Wk 27, 07/04/1848 – John Bidwell

1915

Dorothy Fay Southworth, ‘Dorothy Fay’; born in Prescott, AZ; Actress.  {001}

1933

Died; Elizabeth Bacon Custer+2, age 90; wife of General George Armstrong Custer, in New York City, NY. A tireless promoter of her husband’s legend, she wrote three books: Boots and Saddles (1885), Following the Guidon (1890); and Tenting on the Plains (1893). Although they represented the basic story with some accuracy, they were clearly intended to glorify her husband’s legacy as she perceived it. Considering other writings of the times and the various heroic movies produced: They Died with Their Boots On (1941), Custer of the West (1967) and others; she met with considerable success in her endeavors. The Indians and most modern historians don’t quite agree with her perspective or that presented in the movies. Photo: U.S. PD.  {001}
see:
Wk. 26, 06/25/1876 – Little Big Horn

4/5 of… 1879

Their quarrel over a woman had freighter Levi Richardson ready to fight before he sat across the table from “Cock-eyed Frank” Loving at the Long Branch that evening in Dodge City, KS. Quiet words evolved into loud words and soon into action and flying lead. Of Richardson’s five rounds, one grazed Loving’s hand; Loving finally fires six and Richardson is hit in the arm, side and chest; the Coroner’s Jury rules self -defense.  {001}
see:
Quotes Index – Gunfighter Quotes – Dodge City Globe

1894

A drunken Bass Outlaw, kills Texas Ranger Joe McKidrict, wounds Constable John Selman and is killed by Selman; Tillie Howard’s Sporting House, El Paso, TX.  {001}
see:
Quotes Index – Gunfighter Quotes – Bass Outlaw

1900

Deputy U.S. Marshal George Scarborough, killer of John Selman, dies in a gunfight with two robbers.  {001}
see:
04/06/1896 – below

4/6 of…1849

Ten steamboats packed with hopeful prospectors have arrived in St. Joseph, MO within the last week.  {001}
see also:
Photo Gallery Index – Transportation Photos – Steamboats

1878

The Dallas [TX] Daily Herald tells us that “Fort Worth is so dull that the rats play in the streets in broad daylight.”  {001}

1880

Battle of Hembrillo Basin (aka: Battle of Rattlesnake Springs): Seventy-one U. S. 9th Cavalry Buffalo soldiers win a small victory over a combined band of some 150 Chiricahua and Mescalero Apaches led by Chief Victorio.  {001}
see also:
The Originals Index – Indian Wars Timeline

1896

Deputy to the notorious sheriff John Larn, rustler; the assassin of John Wesley “Wes” Hardin. Now, little but a drunken gambler, John Henry Selman {06} is shot to death by Deputy U.S. Marshal George Scarborough in the alley next to the Wigwam Saloon in El Paso, TX.  {001}

1972

Eddie Dew, age 63, died Burbank, CA.  “B” Western Movie Actor in the 1940’s; he starred in “Red River Robin Hood” (1942), Beyond the Last Frontier” and “Raiders of  Sunset Pass” both in 1943; a few, mostly supporting roles followed.  {001}

2010

The Passing of Wilma Mankiller, age 64: First female Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation (1985-95), Indian activist and author (Mankiller: A Chief and Her People -1999). An effective, if sometimes controversial, modern Indian leader. Read her book! TYH!  Photo: U.S. PD,  2001 Phil Konstantin.  {001}
see:
Quotes Index – Indian Quotes – Barack Obama

4/7 of… 1805

Sacagawea, a Lemhi Shoshone (Northern Shoshone) Indian woman (with a baby), joins the Lewis and Clark Expedition in the spring when they leave the Mandan Indian camp where they have wintered over (near present day Bismarck, ND).  She leads them across the Continental Divide through Lemhi Pass as the western expedition is resumed.  {001}

1867

Fort Larned, KS: with free-lance reporter Henry M. Stanley (who will dispatch to the St. Louis and New York press) in tow, Civil War hero Gen. W.S. Hancock arrives from Fort Leavenworth to parlay with the Arapaho, Cheyenne and Sioux. The negotiations do not go well and at some point Hancock has an abandoned Cheyenne village burned and that cooks his previously demonstrated limited ability to deal with the Indians. He is reassigned.  {001}

1869

Virginia City – Gold Hill, NV:  A fire broke out in the 800-foot level of the Yellow Jacket Mine (part of the Comstock Lode). Timbers smoldered and collapsed, flooding the Yellow Jacket and neighboring Kentuck and Crown Point mines with poisonous gas. The fire takes more than forty men in the three mines. Some bodies are lost in collapsed and toxic sections of the mine.  {001}
see also:

1874

The San Antonio-Austin stage is taken for $3,000 just outside Blanco, TX by road agents; said to be William Boswell, Cal Carter and James C. “Jim” Reed, sans Belle Starr.  {001}

1877

Entrepreneur Al Swearengen‘s modest Cricket Saloon’s “Prize Fights” have taken enough money from the local miners to build a far more grand affair; the opulent Gem Variety Theater opens in Deadwood, SD.  Between dishonest gambling games, prostitution and liquor sales the Gem could bring in $ 5,000, or more, every night! Well over $100,000 in today’s devalued funds. Plus, Al controlled the lucrative opium trade in the city. Photo: U.S. PD c. 1878, unknown, The Gem Variety Theater. (Thought to be Al in the left buggy.)  {001}

1886

Wakeeney, KS: William “Billy” Olive (Print Olive‘s eldest) kills friend Dave Harrison and makes a slow run across the Oklahoma Panhandle (No Man’s Land). He’s a tad too slow, and is ambushed and killed by Joe Hodge and a saloonman named Henderson.  {003}

1893

Died in Denver, CO at age 79, Capt. Richard Sopris; Steamboat Captain, Railroad and Canal Builder, Legislator, Explorer, Prospector, Soldier, Arapaho County Sheriff (1864-68), Mayor of Denver, CO (1878-81). Namesake of Mt.  Sopris (12,956′) in the Elk Mountains of Western, CO.  Photo: PD, City & County of Denver  {001}

4/8 of… 1842

Born, Elizabeth Bacon (Custer)+2; wife of General George Armstrong Custer in Monroe, MI.  {001}

1885

Bee Ho Gray, born Embry Cannon Gray in Leon, Chickasaw Nation Indian Territory (OK).  {001}

1889

An article in the Casper Weekly Mail (WY) criticizing large cattle ranchers as “land sharks” and having prevented honest settlers from prospering, by homesteader Jim Averell, brings accusations that he is, in fact, a ‘nester’ (squatter) and a cattle rustler.  {001}

1888

Mart Duggan, shot in the head by person’s unknown the night before. He refuses to identify his assailant before he dies. Louis Lamb‘s wife delivers her “widows weeds” to Duggan’s wife and instead of dancing on his grave,* she dances in front of the Texas House where he was shot. Leadville, CO  {001}
see:
Wk. 47, 11/22/1880 – Louis Lamb

1892

Butch Cassidy and Al Hainer taken by John Chapman and Uinta Deputy Bob Calverly; shots fired but no serious injuries. Auburn, WY.  {001}

1898

Three Guardsmen lawman Bill Tilghman and Heck Thomas kill outlaw Richard “Little Dick” West [born c. 1860, TX?] in a gunfight at Harmon Arnett’s home near Guthrie, OK. West was one of Bill Doolin‘s “Oklahombres” and later a founding member of the failed Jennings Gang.  {001}
see also:
PLAYERS – Timelines Index – Timelines M-Z – Three Guardsmen Timeline

1900

Tombstone, AZ Territory: Billy Stiles, freshly released from jail, due to having made a confession; returned to the Cochise County Courthouse requesting a visit with Burt Alvord and other members of the Alvord-Stiles Gang. As he was leaving, he produced a revolver and demanded the keys from jailer George Bravin. A short scuffle ensued and Bravin was shot in the leg. Stiles released 24 prisoners and departed with the members of his gang .  {001}

1958

“Pistol Pete” (Frank Boardman Eaton) died in Perkins, OK at the age of 97. The fastest draw and finest pistol shot in the Old West: Author, Cowboy, Indian Fighter, Scout, U.S. Marshal. A deputy U.S. Marshal at the age of seventeen in the Indian Territory under Judge Isaac C. Parker, the “Hanging Judge”. During that time (by 1887) he said he had tracked down and killed five of the six ex- Quantrill Raiders who had murdered his Vigilante father when he was but eight years old.  The sixth had been killed in a dispute over a card game. At twenty-nine, he joined the Oklahoma Land Rush,* settling southwest of Perkins, OK where he served as sheriff and later became a blacksmith. He wrote two books which exemplify the life of a veteran of the Old West. The first, was an autobiography; Veteran of the Old West: Pistol Pete, which tells of his life as a Deputy U. S. Marshal and cowboy. The second, published thirty years after his death; Campfire Stories: Remembrances of a Cowboy Legend. Photo: U.S. PD c. 1890’s? TYH!  {001}
see:
Wk. 16, 04/22/1889 – Land Rush!
Quotes Index – Gunfighter Quotes – Pistol Pete

End: Week 14, April 2nd thru 8th
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{001} C 11/21; E 03/19; F 06/11; P 03/18
{003} C 09/19